Posts tagged ‘Congorilla’

Wolfman and Kane conclude the Forgotten Heroes story in Action 553 (March 1984).

Immortal Man relates his origin, finding a glowing meteor back in caveman times, which endowed him with the ability to reborn with the same consciousness each time he dies, as well as gaining new powers with each body. This is somewhat similar to the origin of Vandal Savage – who gained immortality back in caveman times after being exposed to a glowing meteor. This story weaves the two origins together, which would remain the case from now on.

Superman struggles to destroy the plants that he gives off, a pointless task. Immortal Man is not so determined to kill Superman as he sounded at the end of the previous issue. The plan is to send the Forgotten Heroes back to all the different golden temples and destroy them, which will undo Vandal Savage’s spore scheme.

Savage takes to the air to announce that Superman is behind the situation with the plants, and further blacken his name.

We follow Animal Man, Dane Dorrance, Rick Flag, Dolphin, Cave Carson and Congo Bill and Congorilla as they each fulfill their part of the plan, and demolish one of the temples. Immortal Man has psychic powers in this body, and monitors it all.

Superman joins Rip Hunter as they attack the temple far back in the past. They succeed, although Superman gets lost in the destruction.

Vandal Savage loses his great power source with the destruction of the pyramids, but Rip Hunter gets young again.

This was a very popular story, and the Forgotten Heroes return the following year in DC Comics Presents.

Wolfman and Kane begin a two-part story in Action 552 (Feb. 84) which sees the formation of an unusual grouping, the Forgotten Heroes. Much of this issue simply re-introduces the various characters. In case readers had, you know, forgotten them.

Vandal Savage has had Superman infected with a disease that causes him to emit spores of deadly prehistoric plant life. It takes Superman a long time to figure this out.

As he does, we get to meet the members of this new group. Each one has had an encounter with one of a number of mysterious golden pyramids. Cave Carson starts off with his story, followed by Animal Man, making his first appearance since showing up in Wonder Woman a couple of years earlier.

Rick Flagg speaks on behalf of the Suicide Squad, who came across a pyramid while hunting the Yeti. Flagg had not appeared since the early 60s. Dane Dorrance returns, talking about the pyramid the Sea Devils found, and also his encounter with the mysterious Dolphin. This marks Dolphin’s third appearance, following her introduction in Showcase in the late 60s, and a small role in Showcase 100 in the mid 70s.

Congo Bill and Congorilla return to the pages of Action as well, as the ape came across a pyramid in Africa. Both had last been seen a few years earlier in DC Comics Presents.

Rip Hunter is the last to tell his story, of how he and his crew went in the very distant past, and found a pyramid in the time before even the dinosaurs.

Superman finally twigs in that he is creating the killer plant life.

And Immortal Man, not seen since his last story in Strange Adventures in the mid 60s, announces that the only way the Forgotten Heroes can save the world is to kill Superman.

Brainiac is back, and this time, he knows what he is doing, in a story by Siegel, Swan, and Kaye, in Action 280 (Sept. 61).

The story opens in the distant past, where Superman left him, in suspended animation, after his red/green kryptonite attack. Cavemen eventually waken him, and he heads back to the present.

Perry White has sent Clark Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen to Africa, to write a story on the uprisings taking place. But they wind up in the jungle, watching some gorillas.

Brainiac finds them, and shrinks them all down, sealing them in a bottle. A large gorilla tries to intervene, but winds up bottled as well.

The gorilla is able to escape from the bottle, which none of the humans can do, and even throws down a line, leading them all to safety.

Superman has figured out who the gorilla is. Did you? It’s Congorilla! Congo Bill fills in the gaps, how he spotted Brainiac and trailed him.

This is the first appearance of Congo Bill and Congorilla since the series in Adventure Comics ended a few months earlier. They next appear, a few years down the road, in the pages of Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen.

Lesla-Lar continues with her evil plans in this Siegel and Mooney tale.

While Linda lives blissfully in Kandor, Lesla-Lar visits Lex Luthor again, convincing him to build a kryptonite gun with which to kill Superman.

She successfully cons Superman, both that she is really his cousin, but also that him crushing a rock restores her powers.

Superman agrees that, with her powers back, he will introduce her to the world. We discover Lesla’s plan. After Superman introduces her, Lex Luthor will kill him, and then she will kill Lex while capturing him. Then all the glory and adulation will be hers.

Great cover for Action 261 (Feb. 61). Sadly, the Superman story, by Siegel, Boring and Kaye, is not nearly as entertaining.

Superman starts giving guided tours of his Fortress of Solitude. He inspects the guests for hidden weapons or devices, but misses a bomb hidden in a lead thermos.

Superman relates stories about his most dangerous foes – none of which are characters we have seen before or since. Some Kandorians become aware of the bomb plot, but are unable to warn Superman because of a rainbow gem. They do alert Superman in time, when the bombers cover the gem with the lead thermos lid.

Congo Bill’s long -running series reaches the end of its run in Action Comics with this story by Robert bernstein and Howard Sherman.

It’s not a great note to go out on. Congo Bill accidentally rubs his ring while giving a performance, and the Golden Gorilla uses his body to run rampant. Janu knows what is going on, and tries to calm the creature, but some hoods dressed as police take the boy down.

It’s a lot of chaos and confusion. Some parts are fun, and it’s a change of pace, but the switch back at the end of the story is the result of a bullet grazing the ring, which really should not have any effect at all.

The Congorilla series is not done, it simply moves to the pages of Adventure Comics. But those stories are not that great, and the series ends within the year.

Streaky, the Super-Cat gets introduced in this story by Siegel and Mooney.

Linda rescues a stray cat, and names him Streaky, due to his markings. Linda had also been experimenting with kryptonite, trying to find a cure. Streaky comes across some residue from her experiment, called x-kryptonite, which endows him with super-powers.

The first thing he does is take vengeance on the dog that had attacked him earlier. Supergirl discovers Streaky, and they play together for a while.

Streaky’s powers vanish as quickly as they came. Supergirl has no idea what caused them, and of course Streaky cannot explain. The story leaves it open to the readers, as to whether Streaky’s powers will return. And the readers clearly responded positively, as the cat will come across more x-kryptonite in the future.

A true classic cover on Action 256 (Sept. 59), for the Superman story by Binder, Swan and Kaye.

Superman undergoes a scientific experiment that transforms him into a future man, the Ultra-Superman. He can foresee the future, and even show his thoughts to others as images. He announces four disasters that will strike, and tries to prevent them.

Three attempts end in failure, and Ultra-Superman loses faith in his ability to change what he has foreseen, the assassination of the US president, presumably Eisenhower, although he is not named.

But no, the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, designed to draw out the would-be assassins. The Swan art makes this fun, and I love the cutaway on the egg-head, revealing the camera.

Janu makes his first appearance in a Congorilla story, although Howard Sherman presents the tale as if Janu is already familiar with the animal and situation. Janu is working as a stunt double for an obnoxious child actor on a film set in the jungle. Janu does things for the movie like swim next to crocodiles, and Congo Bill allows this. For some reason.

Janu swipes Bill’s ring, and becomes Congorilla, using the ape to humiliate the actor.

Congo Bill knows what is going on, and has no trouble with it. The director finds the apes antics cinematic, and the child star gets replaced by Janu, while Bill takes the ape role as Congorilla.

So really, the story is about them taking over a production, and making themselves the stars.

Dick Wilson is introduced in this story by Binder and Mooney. He sees Supergirl flying near the orphanage, and tries to figure out who she might be.

As Linda is not aware that Dick is onto her, her carelessness leads him to suspect her. From then on, the story is a gender reversal of the Lois Lane or Lana Lang stories, as Linda has to prove that she is not Supergirl. The odd thing is that no one yet knows Supergirl even exists.

I do love the panel where Linda super-sorts the steel from the dumbbell up her nose.

Superman has created a Supergirl robot, and gives it to Linda as a gift, to help protect her identity.

Dick Wilson will return. He eventually gets adopted, and his last name gets changed to Malverne.

Bizarro had been introduced in the Superboy comic the previous year, but the character died at the end of the story. Otto Binder and Al Plastino bring the character back for good in Action 254 (July 1959).

Luthor has acquired the plans of the machine used in the earlier story, and with the help of his assistant,Vekko, he recreates it.

Luthor lures Superman, and uses the imperfect duplicator on him, creating a new Bizarro, who nonetheless has the memories of dying as the original. But Luthor was expecting an obedient slave with Superman’s powers. Bizarro runs amok right from the start.

His invulnerability is clear to see as the military does everything, including nuke him, trying to stop Bizarro.

Since Superman is in love with Lois Lane, Bizarro is as well. He builds a ramshackle home for them, and brings Lois there to propose. She rejects him, politely, insisting that she loves only Superman.

Bizarro than has probably the most complicated thoughts of his life, as he uses the imperfect duplicator on himself, creating a perfect Superman. He sends this one to propose to Lois, while using kryptonite to keep Superman away (as per the cover image).

Vekko, incidentally, does not appear again until John Byrne’s reboot of Superman, where he returns as Luthor’s assistant during the creation of Bizarro.

The story concludes in the next issue.

Congorilla falls under the control of someone else in this Howard Sherman story. A thief breaks into Congo Bill’s room while he is sleeping, and steals the ring, along with his watch and money.

The thief has read about the ring, though he didn’t realize it was Congo Bill’s room he was breaking into. He tries it out, and is excited to be in the Golden Gorilla’s body, which he promptly starts using for crime. Bill has to subdue the gorilla, in the thief’s body, and then try to capture him.

Fortunately, a rampaging gorilla is not that hard to find. Bill wears an African mask as he hunts the gorilla-thief down. I’m not certain why. Who is he trying to conceal his identity from?

Despite her efforts to prove Linda Lee unworthy, Supergirl gets taken by a foster family in this story by Binder and Mooney.

They run a carnival sideshow, and plan to use Linda in the act, as a strong girl. She figures that it’s all just entertainment, so goes along with it.

When she is whisked away before the show is over, she gets suspicious, and uses her vision and hearing powers to learn that her foster parents are using her as part of their phony strength serum scam.

Linda uses her Supergirl powers to trick them into thinking the formula really works. It’s easy when she just has to appear strong herself, more difficult when she has to make her foster father think it worked on him. The couple fall for her scam, and bankrupt themselves on worthless serum. No longer able to support Linda, they return her to the orphanage.

Two major debuts in Action 252 (May 1959), and though Superman is displayed on the cover, the story represented by the image is not even his!

Superman’s story, by Bernstein and Plastino, introduces Metallo. There had been an earlier version, Metalo, who faced Superboy, but that character made his only appearance before the introduction of kryptonite.

John Corben, a journalist, embezzler and thief, gets into a car accident, but is found by a benevolent doctor.

Horribly injured, John wakes to discover that he has been given a robotic body, although on the surface he still appears normal. He no longer has a functioning heart, and must be powered by a radioactive substance. Uranium is keeping him alive, but the doctor refers to another thing that could be used, before collapsing.

Corben gets a job at the Daily Planet, where he tries to romance Lois Lane.

In the evenings, he makes the most out of the strength his robot body gives him, raiding places for the uranium he needs to stay alive. The superhuman nature of the thefts prompt the media to give him the nickname Metallo.

Corben happens to look identical to Clark Kent, and also Superman (obviously), a trait never ascribed again to the character. He learns that kryptonite will also power him, and searches for it at a Superman exhibit being set up. With the kryptonite in his “heart,” Superman is powerless to stop him

It’s all a great set-up. But the story ends far too abruptly, as Metallo collapses and dies. You gotta wonder why they were so determined to prevent good villains from returning.

It was not until the 70s that Metallo came back, as Corben’s brother. In the late 80s, when John Byrne rebooted the Superman series, he brought back John Corben, and was pretty faithful to his origin.

Bernstein also wrote the Congorilla story in this issue, with art by Howard Sherman. Congo Bill is leading a trek across the desert, but finds that the fort at the oasis has been taken over by people who plan to rob the passing tourists. Apparently desert treks are really the in thing.

Bill gets imprisoned in the fort, but uses his ring to switch bodies and become Congorilla, and leads an assault on the fort, freeing himself, and the other prisoners. One of the better Congorilla stories.

And in the third and final spot, Supergirl’s series launches with the debut of her character, by Otto Binder and Al Plastino.

Superman sees a rocket crash outside Metropolis, and, investigating, finds a young girl dressed in a matching outfit. She claims to be from Krypton as well, though Superman is highly suspicious.

She explains how a chunk of Krypton, at this point containing only “a street of homes,” was ejected intact during the planet’s destruction. Her father lead the survivors in laying lead shielding on the ground, to prevent the kryptonite from killing them. There is no mention of the city being domed, the atmosphere just “came along with them.” Friendly atmosphere! The girl was born on this floating neighbourhood, but sent away to Earth after meteors pierced the lead shielding. Her parents had observed Kal-El, and sent her, in a matching outfit, to join him.

Only as her tale ends does Kara actually start using names. Her parents were Zor-El and Alura, the brother, and sister-in-law, of Jor-El. She is Superman’s cousin.

Having finally found a living relative, Superman does the tender thing, forcing her to adopt a disguise, and leaving her at an orphanage in a different city to be raised. I guess she should be glad he didn’t send her to a work house. She chooses the name Linda Lee.

Supergirl’s series would run as a back-up feature in Action Comics for more than a decade, and would see her leave the orphanage, get adopted, and move from being Superman’s “secret weapon” to a publicly acknowledged hero in her own right.